The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is an unusual mystery novel written by an unusual narrator. The author of the story is fifteen year old Christopher John Francis from England. What makes him unusual is Christopher suffers from fairly intense autism. Christopher is easily frustrated when he encounters uncomfortable situations. Christopher cannot understand emotions, doesn’t relate well with people, and cannot stand being touched. In some areas though, Christopher is a genius. He knows facts like all of the countries of the world and their capitols, and he excels in the math and science subjects. Christopher wrote this story as an assignment for his special school. His story begins when one night he finds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled by a pitchfork. Christopher decides he will take it upon himself to find who is responsible. At first he is blamed for the murder by the dogs’ owner, Mrs. Shears, who quickly calls the police. When the police begin questioning Christopher he is unable to understand why and is angered by the policeman touching him. He hits the police officer and is arrested and taken to jail. He is later bailed out by his father who the reader learns is Christopher’s only guardian and loves him very much. Christopher believes his mother died from a heart attack at the hospital which the reader later learns is false. Christopher’s father, wanting to keep him out of trouble, tells him to stop playing his detective games and forget about the murder. Christopher who has a great love for animals doesn’t understand his father's reasoning and decides to continue his detective work in secret and behind his father's back. As he digs deeper into the case he uncovers secrets in his own family. One day while alone at his home he sneaks into his father’s room and found a drawer of letters addressed to him from his mother. The letters have post marked dates after the supposed death of his mother. After reading the letters in which his mother describes her new life he begins to realize that his mother truly isn’t dead. When his father finds him reading the letter he realizes he can no longer lie to Christopher. Christopher’s mother had more of a temper and was less understanding than his father and always had a hard time dealing with Christopher because of his disability. She said she still loved Christopher but she couldn’t take him anymore so she ran off to London with Mr. Shears. Mr. Shears is the former husband of Mrs. Shears and he and Christopher’s mother had an affair behind the backs of Christopher’s father and Mrs. Shears. She said in her letters even though she had left, she still wanted to keep in touch with Christopher. Christopher’s father mad at the betrayal of his mother to their family decided to cut Christopher off from her, telling him she had died. Christopher unable to understand that his mother left him out of choice was mad at his father for lying. Then his father told him that it was he who had killed Wellington out of anger. Christopher unable to understand why his father would kill a dog no longer felt safe in a house with a murderer and liar. That night Christopher ran away. Having no place to go, he decides to journey to England by himself to find his mother. Can Christopher travel all the way to London by himself and find his mother and can his relationship with his mother ever be repaired, read and find out.
1. This story is much different from most literature because it is written in the unique perspective of a person with severe autism. His insight and thinking is very different from most normal people. Do you believe that reading a story like this can teach us how to better deal with people with disabilities and show how their thinking may be very different from our own?
2. Christopher’s mother leaves because she is unable to deal with his disability any longer. Do you think there would ever be a point as a parent that you would not be able to deal with your child any longer and leave him or her?